The Walking Dead Recap: 18 Miles Out

According to Mrs. Grimes, during a zombie apocalypse, women should keep their mouths shut and stay in the kitchen. My response: Lori is a bitch.

In last night’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled 18 miles out, the two apha males of the group leave the farm to properly dispose of Randall, the person that was rescued after trying to kill them. So, the very sexy Rick Grimes (I love you when you’re angry), and the power hungry and immoral Shane, drive 18 miles out from the farm and along the way the two besties finally confront each other over the ol’ wife-banging situation.

Rick stands his ground and claims his woman, Carl, and HIS unborn baby, which clearly urked the crap out of Shane, who still believes that Lori’s baby is his. The always moral and level-headed former sheriff is intent on taking back full control over the group and basically insists that Shane leave things alone in order to stay a part of their happy little apocalypse family.

Following their brief conversation, the pair continue on their journey to drop Randall off as far away from the farm as possible. They stumble upon a school,set up as a shelter against the zombies, and when they leave the poor bastard behind, he informs them that he knows Maggie. Uh-oh. What’s the point of leaving him alive if he knows exactly where Maggie lives and could easily lead the Philly dudes back to the farm?

There is no point; the best solution is to kill the son of a bitch, which Shane is more than happy to do, however, Rick steps in and demands that he leave him alive. This results and a full on brawl between the buddies, who seem to be fighting over more than just killing Randall. Shane’s headbutt to Rick’s face? Awesome.

Meanwhile, Hershel’s sick daughter, Beth, who I didn’t even know existed until she actually became sick, decides that she doesn’t want to live anymore and tries committing suicide.

During this chirade, Lori and Andrea have a dispute over whether or not Beth should be allowed to take her own life. Andrea is obviously in favor of the girl making her own decision while Lori is just Lori. For some reason, even though Lori seems to want to do the right thing, she ALWAYS comes off as a bitch, and she’s no different during this conversation.

Mrs. Grimes makes a comment to Andrea, insisting that Andrea does nothing to help out around the farm and that the men can do just fine without her help. Um, okay Lori, way to totally downgrade women by saying that they basically shouldn’t fight and should just stick to caretaking instead. But don’t worry; Andrea basically wins the argument while cleverly calling little Miss prego a whore. Kudos to you, Andrea.

So, back at the school–or wherever the hell it is that Shane and Rick are–zombies stumble upon their deathmatch and the pair must fend for their lives against the walkers. Shane gets himself into a pretty difficult situation in a bus and Rick decides to leave without saving him! The look on Shane’s face: Priceless.

However, we all knew that Rick couldn’t do something as awful as that. When he sees two dead cops lying next to each other, he remembers his friendship with Shane and goes back to save him. Awww.

There were so many things that I loved about this episode; there were several subtle hints made throughout, giving the audience an idea of what is to come in the future episodes/seasons.

First of all, when Shane is looking over the two cops that they killed, he makes a comment about the pair not having any bites on them. Rick brushes it off but fans of the comics know the big secret–everyone is already infected with the zombie virus; the bites only accelerate the disease. When Shane said this, I immediately felt as if he was confirming this theory, despite Rick’s comments about the pair probably having scratches.

There were also three scenes that acted as allegories to Shane’s demise. The first and third scene were the same: Shane stares off into the distance and sees a lone zombie walking along the field. I took these scenes as metaphors for how Shane is feeling–alone and confused–and after Rick saved his life, he’s realizing that he may actually need his friend afterall. I also saw the image of the zombie as a representation of what was going to actually happen to Shane because as readers know, he turns into a zombie in the books.

The other scene that struck me was during the fight between the two. When Rick is on the ground and Shane chucks the wrench at him, accidentally hitting the window instead, he stares at himself in the window and his reflection is almost zombie-like. He gets a good reflection of himself, the type of person he is becoming, and then the zombie gradually appears, almost emerging with Shane’s appearance, making them one. I found that scene to be pretty cool, and I may be looking too much into it but I’m pretty sure Shane is going to become a zombie.

Since the mid-season premiere, The Walking Dead has improved greatly. There has been a lot more much needed zombie action on top of the drama occurring between the characters. Since Lori has planted the seed about Shane into Rick’s head, I think Rick is going to change as a character and eventually become more ruthless. Either way, I’m loving the rest of the season and I’m super pumped for what’s to come.